Shannara Chronicles’ Eretria finds refuge in a human settlement called Utopia. But is this new sanctuary all it’s cracked up to be?

We last left Eretria bleeding, immobilized, and in the firm clutches of her elf hunting ex-girlfriend Zora. It doesn’t look like much has changed since last week.

Zora is taking the young Rover to a human settlement that’s sitting smack dab in the center of troll country. From the onset, the place has a weird vibe to it. People are too comfortable here. Plus, the Amish Country meets Williamsburg, NY look to the place isn’t doing it any favors. It resembles a Midwest cult waiting to happen. Basically, a hipster’s paradise.

A lot of other stuff is going on while Eretria has been getting herself sold off to a man named Tye. He buys her from Zora for a jar of purified organic honey and two homemade loaves of sweet pumpernickel bread (or whatever the going price for bartering and selling a human being is these days). Wil and Amberle are high tailing it all through troll country looking for Eretria and trying not to get killed. And who do they run into while scampering through the forest?

‘Cross us again and I’ll gut you like the pig you are’

Their dear friend Cephelo. AKA Eritria’s original slave owner. AKA the person who cut the line at Piken and sent Amberle, Wil, and Eretria to their death. AKA the piece of shit Rover that we really were hoping we’d never see again.

But here he is, trying to sweet talk his way out of trouble like always. He has a moderate amount of success, too. Amberle and Wil let him out of his cage as he promises to take them to the nearby human settlement. The place he’s sure Eretria has been taken. With little other choice, the two free him in order to find their friend.

Eretria is no fool. She’s extremely skeptical of all the promises this settlement, ‘Utopia,’ has to offer. In her world, protection, freedom, family, and even love always comes with a price. So she’s a hard sell. Tye literally spends the entire episode trying to convince her that this is a place worth believing in.

And for someone like Eretria, someone who’s been secretly holding onto hope for all the things people truly want, it’s enticing. Eventually her walls start to fall.

‘I’m not leaving here without Eretria’

In true hipster fashion, Tye’s final push to convince Eretria that Utopia is a place worth investing in is — wait for it — a party!

That’s right. A whole shindig with vintage movies, fairy lights, apple brandy, and electro pop music! I mean, to be totally honest, it’s a place I could spend a Saturday night or two at. But it gets creepy when you realize that these people believe this is a way of life. Umm, no thanks.

While everyone is stringing flowers into their beards or whatever, Amberle and Wil take this opportunity to sneak into the party to retrieve Eretria. Things get a little tough at this point. Eretria is tired of feeling pushed around by her destiny and is ready to embrace the ‘freedom’ that Utopia has to offer. But Amberle is so certain she has a higher purpose connected to the Ellcrys tree. Neither she nor Wil want to leave her behind.

She’s on the edge of telling her friends to take a hike and leave without her, but at the last minute Eretria gets a cryptic message from the one man in Utopia who’s returned from Safehold, “Your body is the vessel. Your blood is the key,” he says. “Don’t let them leave without you.”

As it turns out, Utopia does have a price to pay for its existence. Tye leaves offerings to the trolls in order for them to live undisturbed in their community. This month his offerings consist of Amberle, Wil, and Cephelo. Once Eretria learns this, she swoops in to rescue her people. In the process of escaping, however, casualties are lost. In an astoundingly rare moment of selflessness, Cephelo uses his last dying breath to do something that didn’t totally suck. He offered himself up as a distraction while Amberle, Wil, and Eretria ran away.

The three finally have more than a destination in mind. They have a map to Safehold and each other to depend on. They’ve totally got this!

Important notes to make:

Join us next week as we recap Shannara Chronicles season 1, episode 9, “Safehold,” which airs Tuesday, February 26 at 10 p.m. on MTV.